Chris Raffaele's "Grasslands"

Chris Raffaele gets press in the Daily News about his new feature Grasslands, which stars our own Cookies & Cream actor Danny Doherty and associate producer Vincent Caiola. Here it is after the jump:







Chris Raffaele was sitting in the East Tremont Diner but he couldn't eat. He wouldn't even take something to drink.



"I can't...I'm too nervous," he told the waitress.



It was the day before his feature-length movie, a 17-year labor of love, was to be screened downtown Tuesday night, (and again last night) with small audiences including movie distributors and other industry types.



"The Grasslands," shot in black and white, is a dark, moody, slice of life, set to a subtle, haunting score.



It's also a collection of postcards from the Bronx - the waterfall in River Park, the monument in Pelham Bay Park, the skyline of rooftops at sunset. There are shots of E. Tremont Ave., and Westchester Ave. shadowed by the el.



He tried to make the Bronx itself a character, said Raffaele, 41.



"I wanted to make an old-fashioned, beautifully-shot film. I wanted something totally different," he said.



"No hand-held cameras...I had to find a cinematographer who would do it film noir."



Most of the movie is shot in black and white, with color scenes bookending the film.



He used anamorphic lenses to give it the wide-screen look of the old CinemaScope movies.



A Kodak person told him his film could be the last black and white feature, because the company is discontinuing the film.



Read the full piece HERE.



- Lena